Micki Ball was first introduced to the City of Sandy Oaks in a public way on July 8, 2014, at a “Meet the Candidates” meeting set up by the Sandy Oaks Political Action Committee (SOPAC) where Ball was presented as one of the candidates running for an alderman (city council) position. She was known to have first expressed her interest in the new city government when she crashed what was supposed to be a secret meeting for SOPAC on May 27, 2014, where the purpose of the meeting was to discuss the upcoming election.
At the “Meet the Candidates” meeting Micki Ball said she had lived in the Waterwood community for 2 years. In her 2014 Platform that she submitted to SandyOaksNews.com, she stressed that the primary issue in the area was communication.
Of the three town-hall meetings that the City of Sandy Oaks/Waterwood held before the first election, Micki Ball was one of the few candidates who attended all 3 meetings. The second was held on July 14, 2014, where she addressed upset residents who expressed outrage at incorporation. At the third Town-Hall on July 22, 2014, where candidates stood behind tables with their names displayed for the public, Micki Ball was one of the only 3 who showed up.
On August 9, 2014 Micki Ball won the first election for 1 of the 5 aldermen positions on the city council. Later, when aldermen were randomly assigned places and terms, she was assigned Alderman Place 4 with a 2 year term.
Notable Actions as Alderman
August 16, 2014 – Micki Ball voted to approve the hiring of Art Martinez de Vara as city attorney. Martinez de Vara, at the time, was also mayor of Von Ormy, and the legal adviser to CISO, SOPAC, and the WPPOA
September 18, 2014 – During the first city budget hearing, Micki Ball accidentally voted in favor of a retroactive 30 cent tax thinking it was for the next year and not the current. The vote was redone moments later. When Mayor Clement admitted that the budget was created by the city attorney, Art Martinez de Vara, and that the attorney had budgeted $36,000 for himself, Micki Ball did nothing.
October 6, 2014 – Special meeting called to discuss holdover-services with Bexar County. Alderman Micki Ball takes the responsibility of a committee.
December 11, 2014 – Micki Ball was told during the City Council meeting on December 11, 2014 that members of the community received letters from the owner of the property in which the council met, stating that they were legally banned from accessing the property. Ball continued to participate in council meetings anyway, in violation of the Texas Open Meetings Act.
2015
January 2015 -In late December 2015/early January 2014, Jim Clement, as WPPOA president, mailed out letters to property owners in the Waterwood subdivision. The letters announced a vote for an amendment to the WPPOA By-Laws. The original and current By-Laws were 7 pages long and the “amendment” was 32 pages long. The letter included an illegal ballot that was missing a paragraph required by Texas law and also had the date for people’s signature listed as 2014 instead of 2015. If people did not participate in the vote, the letter stated that their absence would be counted as a “Yes” vote. Mail-in ballots were to be sent to Clement’s home.
As an alderman and member of the city council, Micki Ball did nothing to prevent Clement from trying to force the illegal vote.
February 12, 2015 – Micki Ball received an official Open Records Request asking for details on how much the city owed, how far the city was in debt, and what expenses the city had. Ball ignored the request, in violation of the Public Information Act, a state law that promotes honest and open government.
February 26, 2015 – In August of 2014 the city council created an election for an illegal amount of sales tax. Someone also secretly changed one of the tax rates that the democratically elected city council decided on before submitting the paperwork to Bexar county elections officials to be on the ballot. At a special council meeting on February 26, 2015 to fix the amount of illegal taxes, Micki Ball stated “I don’t know who made the change, it doesn’t matter.”
At the same meeting, Micki Ball voted to disregard what voters chose in sales taxes instead of having a new election.
March 21, 2015 – Micki Ball violated the Texas Open Meetings Act by participating in an illegal closed/executive session with the city council in which no reason for the closed session was given.
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